


Finish Line

by aelandair



Category: BlacKkKlansman (2018), Star Wars Sequel Trilogy, The Kitchen (2019)
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, Family, Kid Fic, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-09
Updated: 2019-08-09
Packaged: 2020-08-13 22:18:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,792
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20181619
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aelandair/pseuds/aelandair
Summary: Gabriel, Flip and Stensland spend a day in the snow.





	Finish Line

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the sixth Kylux Summer Fest board! I chose the prompts Snow / Race / One.
> 
> I tagged this as A/B/O Dynamics because that's how Stensland was conceived, but it's not talked about in the fic at all, and there are no other mentions of A/B/O stuff. 
> 
> This fic is also very much inspired by all the awesome Zimmalley art [Jeusus](https://twitter.com/jeusus) has blessed us with!

The crisp, cold winter air has started to worm its way under his clothes and is settling in his bones. Gabriel shivers, pulls his hat lower over his face, tightens his scarf. He picks up the thermos with his gloved hands and takes a sip to try and warm himself from the inside out. The spiked hot chocolate burns pleasantly on the way down. 

He can’t wait until Stensland is tired and freezing and they can make their way back home to cuddle up under a blanket on the couch, maybe watch a movie while they try to warm each other again. But by the looks of it, it could take hours until they’re done. Stensland is still running around, screeching with joy and throwing badly formed snowballs at Flip. 

Gabriel smiles as Flip catches Stensland around the waist and hoists him up, a huge grin on his face as Stensland starts laughing and kicking. Seeing him like this - carefree and having fun, without a worry in the world - makes Gabriel’s heart beat faster in a way he still isn’t entirely used to, even after all these years. But Flip is gorgeous when he’s like this, his smile the most charming thing in the world, and Gabriel has never been able to resist him. 

“No! Put me down! Help!”, Stensland shouts, still laughing and trying to squirm out of Flip’s grip, but Flip doesn’t listen and throws him into the huge pile of snow Gabe helped assemble when they first got here. 

Stensland screeches in delight and indignation as he emerges, completely covered in snow. Gabriel feels a smile spread on his face. He can’t help it. The only thing better than seeing Flip smile is seeing Stensland smile. That Stensland can be so cheerful, so at ease, makes him think that maybe he hasn’t completely failed at being a parent. Because that’s the most important thing, isn’t it? That his son can be truly, unabashedly happy. 

Gabriel takes another sip of his hot chocolate. He’d put just a little bit of liquor in, when Flip wasn’t looking, and is now very glad about it. It helps fend off the cold, just a little bit. Winter would be much more pleasant if it weren’t so damn cold all the time. He’s wearing the thickest sweater he owns, and approximately three pairs of socks beneath all his other winter clothes, and he’s still cold. It’s unfair, really. 

“Daddy! I’m beating Papa in a race, you have to look!”, Stensland shouts. 

Gabriel looks over at him and Flip again and finds that they have pulled their sleds up the small hill, ready to go racing down. Flip looks almost comically big on the little wooden sled, and Gabriel pities him for a split-second. Stensland, with snow still sticking to his face, looks at Gabriel with a wide grin, waiting for an answer. 

“Do you think you’re going to win?”, he asks.

Stensland nods enthusiastically. “Yes! I’m going to win and Papa is going to lose!”

He stretches the word “lose”, almost singing it, mockingly, and then stretches his tongue out at Flip, who snorts and throws Gabriel a wink over his shoulder. 

“Yes, Papa is way too slow to win, isn’t he?” 

“Excuse me? I’m not slow!”, Flip says, mock-indignantly, and Stensland laughs again. 

“You are!”, he shouts. Flip leans over to flick his chubby cheek, making him laugh louder. 

Gabriel chuckles and watches them try to flick each other for a minute. 

“If you win, you can get something nice”, he finally tells them. 

Stensland raises his hands into the air, cheering and demanding cookies as his price.

Flip turns around and watches him closely, trying to decipher what Gabriel means by “something nice”. For a few seconds, Gabriel lets him guess, and then a sly smile spreads across his lips that instantly makes Flip blush. Maybe later, he thinks, when Stensland is asleep, they’ll have some alone time. He can already picture it, the two of them clinging together underneath a heap of blankets, warm and giddy and tangled up in each other. It’s been too long, and he needs it. By the looks of it, Flip does too. Gabriel tries not to get his hopes up too much; Stensland can be quite difficult to put to bed sometimes, but maybe later. Hopefully. 

“Papa, are you ready?”, Stensland asks. 

Flip nods, adjusts himself on his sled. “Ready when you are, buddy.” 

Stensland does the same, positioning his little bundled up body, gripping the edges of the sled tight, and starts counting down with a determined look. 

“One! Two! Go!” 

And then he pushes the sled forward and goes racing down the hill, howling with excitement. It takes Flip a moment to realise that Stensland is already gone, and he hastily follows. It’s a wonderful sight, really: such a huge man on such a tiny sled. Clearly, these things aren’t made for men Flip’s size, because he can barely steer it in the right direction. He looks like he’s close to tilting over every time he changes direction, and Gabriel can’t even tell whether it’s intentional or not. Stensland, meanwhile, doesn’t have the same problems. He slides down the hill smoothly and mostly in a straight line and comes to a slow stop when he reaches the bottom. 

“I won! Did you see that, Daddy?”, he shouts, turning around towards Gabriel just as Flip makes it to the bottom too and goes hurtling into him. 

They topple to the ground in a heap of limbs and sleds, and Gabriel feels worry start to creep up on him, but then he hears Stensland complaining and he doesn’t sound like he’s hurt, so he allows himself to relax again. 

Flip doesn’t seem to have gotten away quite as unscathed. He groans as he disentangled himself from his son, rubs at his back and then helps Stensland up.

“You can’t do anything right, Papa”, Stensland tell him, putting his hands on his hips and glowering at him. 

Gabriel laughs as Flip tries to apologize and praise Stensland for winning, while also not letting him see that his back hurts. He himself was tasked by his son to watch their bags, the little basket of food and the blanket, saving him from having to run around in the snow. Gabriel sure as hell isn’t complaining about it. It’s much more relaxed to just sit by and watch his husband be bested in a sled race by a five year old. A very energetic five year old. Who would have thought children have this much energy? He hadn’t expected that, and sometimes it still takes him aback. He’s only glad he isn’t the chosen one for fooling around today. 

While Stensland and Flip make their way back up the hill, Gabriel can’t help but notice how fast Stensland has grown. Children generally seem to do that, and he’s heard many people talk about it, but he didn’t quite understand it until he experienced it himself. It’s like the last five years passed in just a few seconds. He can still so clearly remember the first time he held Stensland in his arms, and now he goes up to Flip’s hip and walks and talks without pause. Sometimes, Gabriel feels like he just has to blink, and then he’s already missed it, the next step in Stensland’s life, like he has to pay close attention or suddenly his baby will be all grown up and he won’t know where the years have gone, and that terrifies him. Weird, considering his greatest fear once was to stay. 

“Daddy, I won, can I get a cookie now?” 

Stensland and Flip have reached him and sit down on the blanket, both breathing heavily, faces flushed red from exertion and the cold. 

“Of course, darling”, Gabriel tells him while searching the bags for cookies and hot chocolate without alcohol in it. 

Flip sits down heavily next to him. His breath is fogging in the cold air, and he looks kind of adorable, with snowflakes caught in his dark hair and his lower lip stuck out in a pout that may or may not be fake. When Gabriel has found the cookies and the hot chocolate and given them to Stensland, momentarily distracting him, he turns to Flip and presses a quick kiss to his frigid lips. 

“Don’t be sad, love”, he says, smiling and quiet, only inches away from Flip’s face. “You’ll get a consolation price later. How about that?” 

“Oh, that sounds great.” 

WIth a hum and a smile, Flip leans forward to kiss him again, longer this time, before Stensland demands their attention again. 

His hat sits askew, the red hair sticking out unruly and covered in snow, and his nose is running, but he looks unabashedly happy, and it makes something twist in Gabriel’s stomach. Somehow, it’s both a good and bad sensation. It still scares him, how much he loves his son. He’d never thought he’d be able to love someone this much, wanted to avoit it at all costs, in fact, because love makes vulnerable, and he was never in a position where he could allow himself to be just that. 

But so much has changed in the last few years. 

Sometimes he can still feel that itch in his fingertips, taste it at the back of his throat, the need to get up and leave. Go back to being the Gabriel he was before: Someone who didn’t know safety and vulnerability and love, who didn’t know a home, not really, who was at home on the streets, in the night, alone. Always alone. And always lonely. 

He had a special kind of freedom, then, to do whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted, and sometimes he misses that. 

But his new life has its perks too. He never has to worry whether he’ll survive until the next sunrise, he has what he never did before, safety and warmth. He has a husband, who he loves dearly, and a son, who he loves even more. And they love him too, which may be the most unexpected thing of all. He’d never dreamed this could be his life one day. Didn’t think he’d want it, until a year or two ago. But he does want it now, so much it hurts. He wants Flip, and he wants Stensland, and he wants them all to be together, and happy. Nothing more, nothing less. 

Stensland starts babbling about the snowman he wants them all to build together, and Flip takes a sip from the spiked hot chocolate and grimaces at the taste. Gabriel slides an arm around his waist to lean against him, and smiles.

Right now, he has everything he needs. 

**Author's Note:**

> Zimmalley owns my entire heart and I'm crying because The Kitchen comes out in September for me and I don't want to wait this long. 
> 
> If you want to cry about Zimmalley with me, you can find me on Twitter [here](https://twitter.com/aelandair)


End file.
